India on International Union of Railways
A commemorative postage stamp on the 50th Anniversary of the International Union of Railways (U.I.C.), an international rail transport industry body :
Issued by India
Issued on Jun 30, 1972
Issued for : The Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department feel privileged in bringing out a commemorative stamp to mark the golden jubilee of the International Union of Railways.
Description of Design : The design depicts a track layout of a Railway yard wired for electric traction with its control offices and other allied operation facilities.
The stamp design is based on an art work by the well-known French artist George Mathieu. Famous as the promoter of Lyrical Abstraction of art free from all classical restrictions and customs, Mathieu has held exhibitions of his work in many countries. He is also the innovator of Tachism and has specialised in tapestry and porcelain designs.
Type : Stamp, Postal Used
Colour : Gravure Process Yellow, Red, Blue & Black
Denomination : 20 Paise
Overall Size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.
Printing Size : 3.56 x 2.54 cms.
Perforation : 13 x 13
Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked Photogravure Coated adhesive stamp paper
Number Printed : 30,00,000
Number per issue sheet : 35
Printing Process : Photogravure
Designed and Printed at : India Security Press
About :
- The International Union of Railways, otherwise known as UIC was founded in 1922. Its objective is to standardize and improve on the Railways with special regard to international traffic. The UIC is also responsible for ensuring co-ordination and unity of action amongst the International Railway Organisations.
- The Principal European Railway Administrations, as also a certain number of administrations outside Europe are members of the UIC.
- Since 1950, the UIC has set-up 4 new offices, namely,
- a) The Office for Research and Experiments (ORE) for the pooling of means on technical research;
- b) Information and Publicity Centre of the European Railways (CIPCE) for publicity and public relations regarding the railway activities;
- c) International Railway Documentation Bureau (B.D.C.) which facilitates exchanges between the railways, and which publishes jointly with the “International Railways Documentation” in four languages;
- d) The Railway Films Bureau (B.F.C.) which enables information to be exchanged in that field.
- The UIC brings out certain publications on matters of railway interest. The publications comprise:
- i) A monthly magazine entitled “Railway International” brought out by the ‘Joint Executive Committee for Information’ of the International Railway Congress Association (IRCA) and the UIC.
- ii) A document entitled “Quarterly Railway Statistics”, showing comparative results of the principal data in relation to the preceding year;
- iii) “International Railway Statistics”, showing yearly statistics of route and track miles, rolling stock, traffic, receipts, expenditure, finance, staff and accidents.
- The Indian Railways are associated with the International Union of Railways since 1957. The Union recently celebrated its golden jubilee. These celebrations have a special significance for India because on this occasion the UIC held a Colloquium on ‘sharing of Railway Knowledge’ which was presided over by the Chairman of the Indian Railway Board, and was attended by a number of representatives from Railways of both developed and developing countries all over the world.
- The Indian Railways constitute Asia’s largest and the world’s fourth largest railway system. They are also the world’s second biggest state-owned railway system with route length of over 60,000 km. Of all the members of the UIC, the Indian Railways have the biggest route kilometerage.
